Documents Show US Held Iraqi Wives as Tactic

Two recently released documents seem to indicate that US forces kidnapped Iraqi women in attempts to get to their husbands. The official word is that
this is not something the US forces do, but the documents paint a different picture.

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Iraqi human rights activist Hind al-Salehi contends that U.S. anti-insurgent units, coming up empty-handed in raids on suspects' houses, have at
times detained wives to pressure men into turning themselves in.

Iraq's deputy justice minister, Busho Ibrahim Ali, dismissed such claims, saying hostage-holding was a tactic used under the ousted Saddam Hussein
dictatorship, and "we are not Saddam." A U.S. command spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said only Iraqis who pose an "imperative
threat" are held in long-term U.S.-run detention facilities.

But documents describing two 2004 episodes tell a different story as far as short-term detentions by local U.S. units. The documents are among
hundreds the Pentagon has released periodically under U.S. court order to meet an
American Civil Liberties Union request for information on detention practices.

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In the wake of the Jill Carroll story, this brings an entirely new angle to the use of women in the psychological war going on within the War in
Iraq. If what these documents seem to indicate is indeed true, then there is little difference in the methods of the US forces and the methods of the
insurgents. What I would need to be clearer on is if these women are indeed "innocent" or if they are enemy combatants themselves. The first
question would be, if they know the whereabouts of their wanted husbands, and refuse to release that information, is that enough to seize them and
hold them indefinitely?

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